the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) requests $50,000 from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) to help support its 2010 IHA Health Literacy Conference. The conference is a two-day event, geared toward healthcare professionals and health educators, on the topic of health literacy. The 2010 conference theme is "Health Literacy in the Real World: Programs &Solutions That Work." This conference is operational in nature, providing attendees with concrete solutions and programs that have been demonstrated to work when communicating with a low literate and/or low health literate population. The broad, long-term objectives of this conference are to: Educate working healthcare providers and educators about the prevalence of low health literacy and its impact on health communication, healthy behavior, patient safety and health status;Improve the safety and effectiveness of healthcare communication by teaching specific skills for educators and providers, in an effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery;Provide solutions to the challenges of working with a low-literate patient population by sharing ways in which research translates into best practices for providers and educators working with those with low health literacy skills;and Promote networking and sharing of research findings, innovative ideas, and program implementation through a robust poster session. While the Conference Planning Committee is still working on specifics of the objectives, here is a draft of where the Committee is now, which is going to be very close to the final version: The objectives - At the end of the conference, attendees will be able to: 1. Identify one practice you can implement based on what you have learned. 2. Evaluate three components of your patient education program related to health literacy, to determine how any of the solutions learned would be appropriate. 3. Demonstrate the application of one learned skill to the needs of your organization and/or client population. Relevance to Public Health - This conference will educate providers to understand the nature and scope of health literacy, understand why significant numbers of Americans are unable to comprehend basic instructions, and provide them with training and tools to more effectively assist this vulnerable population. Information obtained in this conference will help healthcare providers and educators to effect systemic changes within their sphere of practice, and result in empowered patients and caregivers.